


A Song of Steel and Snow

by Aurelia_Borealis



Category: Captain America (Comics), Captain America (Movies), Captain America - All Media Types, Marvel, Marvel (Comics), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Winter Soldier (Comics)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-26
Updated: 2020-03-26
Packaged: 2021-02-28 20:28:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 506
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23333131
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aurelia_Borealis/pseuds/Aurelia_Borealis
Summary: In 1945, a man falls off a bridge.And he fallsAnd he fallsAnd he falls.(or: the birth of the Winter Solider)
Kudos: 2





	A Song of Steel and Snow

In 1945, a man falls off a bridge. 

And he falls

And he falls

And he falls.

He thinks he is near death as he shivers in his bed of moss and ice. _Good_ , he thinks, _there will finally be peace_. 

In 1945 the vatniks find him, lips blue and hair frosted,

and they pull him

and they drag him

and they torture him.

All the while, he yearns for the sweetness of death, even though he knows that these people will do what they can to keep him alive. His blood leaves an easily identifiable track in the snow. Somewhere, several feet behind, lies a grotesquely mangled arm. _Let them forget it_ , he silently pleads. He knows this wish will not be granted.

Time is unknown to him as he wakes to a room with men in white lab-coats. He heaves a mental sigh. They should have left him in the cold, bleeding to death. A man blinks with the realization that the left side of his body does not feel as light as it should, if anything, it feels heavier.

He raises two sets of trembling hands - but no, that cant be right, he lost his arm from the fall. A glint of metal and a whole lot of panic.

_what have they done to him_

The man in the lab coat comes closer as he realizes his patient is awake. 

These people never intended to keep him prisoner, a man realizes. For the first time since he fell, a man feels fear. He uses the unnatural prosthetic that moves and acts exactly like a hand should to choke the life out of the doctor, the monster who did this to him.

Several hands dig in to his skin and push him down, but not before he sees a familiar face.

Arnim Zola peers at him with his insect-like eyes which are magnified by his glasses and a man stills upon the realization, upon the doubt, that he fell for nothing, that he's back to being prodded and left dazed, only being able to remember what they told him to repeat if such a situation arose: _name, rank, serial number_

He flinches as they pin needles to his veins, his heart rate increasing from a flash of recognition and remembrance - they have done this to him before. Memories play out like an old film reel - he is moved in to a surgery room, he trashes and writhes from the pain in his left arm, something like a saw enters his vision, he screams, they push him back, they inject him with a substance and he can only watch on with horror as his body refuses to answer to him, as he does not have to be held back by strong arms because he is utterly still. He loses consciousness when they begin to saw his jutting bone.

This time it is only sleep, yet he does not who he will be when they decide to wake him up. 

He yearns for an eternal slumber.


End file.
